Weigel & Collaborators Developing Python Tools To Help Scientists View Heliophysics Data

Robert Weigel, Associate Professor, Physics and Astronomy, and his collaborators are developing a suite of Python tools that will allow scientists to easily view and explore heliophysics data in 3-D. 

For the software development side of the project, the researchers will (1) create a set of Python functions that use existing SpacePy and HAPI libraries to read in measurements and simulation output and use the Python/ParaView API to render the data; (2) create a library of functions that produce 3-D renderings of data in a way that is useful for domain scientists; and (3) develop a set of functions that allow for common and basic 3-D data reduction and manipulation that can be used for exploring 3-D data renderings.  

The researchers' initial target for the types of simulation visualizations that can be created will be magnetosphere magnetohydrodynamic simulation output in the Community Coordinated Modeling Center CDF format, native Space Weather Modeling Framework simulation output, and Enlil solar wind model simulation output.  

The software will also have the ability to read in spacecraft measurements from NASA's CDAWeb from and SSCWebusing an existing HAPI library and overlay the spacecraft time series data on a 3-D rendering of simulation output.   

The second part of this project will involve the development of a set of recommendations and conventions for 3-D visualization tools in Python in collaboration with members of the PyHC (Python Heliophysics) community.   

Weigel received $74,996 from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for this work. Funding began in January 2021 and will conclude in late December 2021.